It appeared as a brief news item, a few days ago, that a Saudi judge told a seminar on domestic violence that slapping one’s wife for spending money carelessly is fine. This assertion elicited protest from many people attending the seminar, including activists on domestic violence.

The judge, named Hamad-al-Razine of Jeddah, quoted an example to illustrate his take on the point. He said that if a man gave his wife 1200 riyals and the woman spent 900 of those on buying an ‘abaya’ (the black robe that covers women from head to toe), then it would be fine if the husband slaps her face in reaction. Mr. Razine added that the woman would deserve such a punishment.

The problems with the judge’s example and logic (if there is any such thing in it) are way too obvious. First, the example is an impromptu attempt for justifying the orthodox thought/practice of ‘man beating woman’. But it doesn’t work both ways. What if the woman finds that her husband has wasted a hundred thousand riyals on a racehorse? Can she, in such a case, beat her husband with a cricket bat? If not, then the relationship is not one of a husband-wife but that of master-slave.

Secondly, while giving his wife any sum of money, the illustrative husband of Judge Razine must be burdened with the duty of clarifying what exactly counts as ‘careless spending?’ if he doesn’t specify to his wife how much should be spent on what items, he has no right to show a violent reaction later. And of course, he has to justify his reaction by quoting from the Islamic Law, which defines the exact limits for squandering versus parsimony.

The judge’s remarks also seem to run counter to the mainstream Saudi Islamic values – the importance of a ‘decent’ robe for women. Some Islamic scholars insist on women wearing this ‘ghostly’ dress in order to prevent a potential rape. Is it too much then to spend only 900 riyals on a dress that prevents as heinous a crime as rape? For one thing, yes, it IS too much; by spending only a few hundred riyals, a woman could get blindfolds for dozens of potential rapists. No men watching, no rape!

Other things aside, the judge’s pro-violence remarks came in the very seminar which was meant to prevent violence. Is it not fair then to request such self-professed judges to retire from their judicial position? While sending such a judge home will certainly be great injustice to the poor woman who happens to be his wife, it may save hundreds of thousands of other women whose shopping budgets are not clearly defined, for each item they buy, by their husbands.